Although we only had 6 scouts there was much fun and adventure had by all, whether the scouts were in the challenging white water school or went on a 5 mile hike to a secret swimming hole and funyaking everyone had a blast.

Troop 3 is excited to let everyone know that Leo Spadafino passed his Eagle Scout Board of Review recently. Many congratulations to him and his family, best of luck at UT Knoxville. Thanks to many boys and adults who help him with his Eagle Project building school benches.

This trip was a prep for upcoming summer High Adventure Trip. It was cold, but everyone that went had a great time. We were tested with rain and snow on Saturday night and rewarded by sunshine on Sunday.

Today during feeding the hungry, Mr. Howard Allen talked with us about the homeless life. He is doing a documentary about homelessness and wanted to talk with us about our thoughts as scouts. We asked questions like “Where would you find a safe place on the streets?” and “Do homeless people without families have funerals when they die?”

Mr.Howard answered all of our questions, and what he had to say was pretty interesting. He said, “There really isn’t a safe place for the homeless to stay” and “There’s a cemetery at – where they have a part of the field for homeless.” While I was relieved to know that the people who die on the streets at least got a burial, it was sad to think of them being buried alone. Homelessness seems like a lonely way to live, and die.

I learned a lot from Mr. Howard and I’m glad we talked with him. I think it made us all appreciate what we have.

Although it was pretty hard leaving turkey leftovers and a warm bed on December 27, winter camp was pretty fun this year. It was my first time at Latimer, so it was nice going to a different place. Latimer was a different experience from Boxwell, which I liked.

I think overall we could say that the food, bath houses and classes were nicer than Boxwell. Since Latimer is only a few years old, everything seemed to be fresh and new.

Unlike our Boxwell experience, we spent most of our days in one single class. We had one approximately seven-hour class a day. When we weren’t at class we were generally at camp, hanging around at the dining hall, or at the trading post.

One notable class was Climbing. Climbing was pretty thrilling (to my standards at least). In this class we learned how to rappel, climb, and belay. The bluff was decently tall (about 60 to 80 feet). A couple of people decided that this wasn’t the sport for them, and went back to camp. I really can’t blame them, it was pretty scary having to trust someone you don’t even know to not let you fall off a cliff and onto your head! Those of us who stayed were glad that we had in the end.

(Although this isn’t a photo of the cliff, this is what it felt like!)

Troop 3 is happy to announce our newest Eagle Scout! Collin Thompson passed his Eagle Scout Board of Review with flying colors last night. Many congratulations to Collin and his family who worked hard to support him through this process.

For his Eagle Project, Collin built a connecting trail in Lockeland Springs – new East Nashville historical park being develop with the help of the Lockeland Spring Neighborhood Association. His project is a great addition to the park and the community.

We will let everyone know as soon as the date & time of Collin’s Eagle Court of Honor has been set!

This was a pretty challenging backpacking trip. We went long distances and we we had many creeks to cross. It was quite a trek.

At the start of the trip, Friday night, my patrol camped at Station Camp. After we got done with cracker barrel we were really tired, so we went to bed at about 10:30pm, knowing that we had to get up at 6:30am to get on the trail.

When we got up Saturday, we broke down camp and had ramen for breakfast. As the cook, I didn’t get to eat until my ramen was cold… Bad idea. The trail was pretty difficult, but we had no injuries or problems. We had a hearty launch of cheese and summer sausage wraps, Pringles, apples, and Oreos. Delicious! We got back on the trail and we had to change into water shoes a few times for the creek crossings without man rocks to step on. We passed the Whistling Otter Pigs about two miles before we settled down to camp for the night. That night we had pepperoni pasta for dinner with cheesecake for desert. We had our fire ceremony, got to bed and slept very well.

Sunday morning we broke down camp, had oatmeal for breakfast, and started back on the trail at about 7:20am. We wanted to get done earlier than the day before, so we pushed ourselves. The part of the trail we did Sunday was more level than the day before, so we were relieved that it wasn’t as hard as it had been. For lunch we were supposed to have trail tacos, but that didn’t work out because we didn’t have tie to collect water, pull out pots and start up camp stoves, so instead we had cheese and sausage wraps again since there was plenty left.

At the end of the hike everyone was nice and tired, we were looking forward to getting home!